Classic Albums: Peter Gabriel – So (2012/Eagle Blu-ray)/The Doors: Live At The Bowl ‘68 (Eagle Blu-ray)/Neil Young Journeys (2012/Sony
Blu-ray)/Pat Metheny: The Orchestration
Project (2012/Eagle Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray 2D)
3D
Picture: B- 2D Picture: B- Sound: B-/B-/B-/B+ Extras: B- Main
Programs/Concerts: B- (Gabriel: B)
Four new
Blu-ray releases mark the return of four great music acts who have had major
Blu-ray releases before and are back with more.
Classic Albums: Peter Gabriel – So (2012) is from the latest round
of the highly influential, on again off again TV series (often imitated)
showcasing a key album of a key music artist.
In this case, it is former Genesis band member Gabriel finally having a
surprise hit album and hit set for songs when that was not necessarily
expected.
The main
program runs over 58 minutes and bonus footage (with a minute or two of
overlap) running about 36 more minutes is pretty thorough throughout, even
discussing his prior work. They miss how
Shock The Money was a breakthrough
single prior to this album’s release and the making of the Sledgehammer Music Video, more on In Your Eyes and more on Big
Time just could not fit in the main program. With those extras, this is a very thorough
look at the artist and the artists around him making So worth going out of your
way for. The Classic Albums series has
not lost its touch.
For more
Gabriel on Blu-ray, try these links:
New Blood: Live In London in 3D
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11317/Peter+Gabriel:+New+Blood+%E2%80
Secret World Live
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11759/Ken+Russell%E2%80%99s+Lisztoma
Next we
have The Doors: Live At The Bowl ‘68
which is an expanded version of the famed concert now remastered from original
elements from the vault so everyone can see and hear the show better than
ever. Songs performed include Alabama Song, Back Door Man, Hello I Love
You, Light My Fire and The End among 20 tracks including newly
added materials.
It is a
classic show to fans and one of the most circulated on home video, so it is
nice to have it expended and looking and sounding about as good as it ever
will. It’s as good a place to start as
anywhere to get to know the band better and holds up very well after having
seen it so often over the years.
Definitely check it out.
For more
Doors, try these links, which also offer more related links:
Live In Europe
1968 DVD (makes
for an interesting comparison)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1300/Doors+-+Live+In+Europe+1968+(Eagl
Mr. Mojo Rising: The Story Of L.A. Woman Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11406/The+Doors+%E2%80%93+Mr.+Mojo
When Your Strange: A Film About
The Doors Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10039/Classic+Albums:+Black+Sabbath+%E
It shows
the band in prime form in footage that might be familiar, but the concert
(outside of sonic quality) seems paired down on some level, but Morrison had
not gone into personal decline yet and delivers throughout. Though no definitive concert of the band
exists on home video (and Blu-ray) yet, this is one worth revisiting or seeing
for the first time as much as anything.
Director
Jonathan Demme is back with Neil Young
Journeys (2012), a follow-up to his 2006 biographical music documentary on
the great singer/songwriter Heart Of
Gold which we reviewed at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3835/Neil+Young+-+Heart+Of+Gold+(DTS
Six years
later, Young is still a smart, talented survivor has not sold out and is as
uncompromising as ever. Most poignant is
the moment he sings Ohio, his classic Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young protest
song about the four innocent college student s at Kent State who were gunned
down for no good reason except that President Nixon panicked over the Vietnam
fiasco he took on and the counterculture in general, sending masked soldiers to
open fire indiscriminately. Here, we see
their names and stills of their faces in a great moment above several
throughout.
Most of
the footage is concert performances, but in a more seamless way than usual,
Young talks about his past and his hometown then and now as he drives around in
his classic car. He is performing there
and it is a worthy continuation of the Young/Demme collaboration. For more Neil Young, try these links:
Neil Young’s Music Box: Here We
Are In The Years
DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11075/Neil+Young%E2%80%99s+Music+Bo
A Musicares Tribute To Neil Young DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10971/The+Boomtown+Rats+Live+At+Ham
At the
beginning and the dawn of High Definition formats, The Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up: Live was one of the first great
HD music releases and would up a critical, commercial and audiophile hit for
all music, HD and home theater fans. We
reviewed the Blu-ray version at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4550/Pat+Metheny+Group:+The+Way+Up
Metheny
has issued a few more video programs since, but this time going it alone solo,
with a twist, has come up with one of the still few music 3D programs to date
in Pat Metheny: The Orchestration
Project (2012). The one-man plus
preprogrammed instrumental show is split into a five song program (the second
song is in five movements), then we get four bonus instrumentals, all in
3D. This looks decent, but with some
limits. It is the sound that is the real
winner here impressing throughout as the previous Blu-ray had. Metheny wanted to top his triumph of a few
years ago and he at least continues it in content, but the sound is even
better.
For more
Pat Metheny Group, don’t miss the Imaginary
Day Live DVD at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6760/Pat+Metheny+Group:+Imaginary+Day
The 1.78
X 1, 1080p full HD MVC-encoded 3-D – Full Resolution digital High Definition
image on Metheny is as good as our
other favorite music performance Blu-ray 3D releases, Lang Lang Live In Vienna 3D (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and
the Peter Gabriel 3D release with its link above.
Metheny
is a closed set with the man and pre-programmed instruments playing throughout
while he plays for real. It will remind
some of Herbie Hancock’s Music Video for Rock
It, but sometimes visually a little darker and that can lead to a lack of
depth in the 3D presentations. Still, it
is not bad and nice, pleasantly made and shot to match the mood of the music
and not as kinetic as the Hancock classic.
The 1080p
2D 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the remaining three
Blu-rays marks one of the very first times we have had several music Blu-rays
that were 1080p at once and may just mark a slow move away from 1080i for
future Blu-ray music titles. Doors was shot on 16mm color film and
looks very good for its age, though purists might not be happy the 1.33 frame
was cropped for widescreen and despite fine clarity and color, detail is a
little lacking versus other 16mm films we have covered from the time on
Blu-ray. Still, a DVD could never
capture this color range, richness or warmth, so this is as good as this is
going to look outside of a 1.33 X 1 color film print in great shape.
Journeys and Metheny are HD shoots with Demme getting some fine close shots of
Young talking about his life to the cameras on the former, usually driving
around his hometown, but the concert footage is especially good and
colorful. However, there are still
moments of noise, motion blur and other anomalies that give away it is HD.
The Dolby
TrueHD 7.1 mix on Metheny is easily
the best sonic presentation here with some of the best TrueHD I have heard in a
while and one of the best overall 7.1 music mixes we have heard to date. This is where he has topped himself and I
would consider this one of the best Blu-ray music demos to date for sound. We get clarity, range, warmth, depth and
soundfield range that all serious home theater systems will find a great
challenge. In this respect above all
others, he does not disappoint.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Journeys and Doors are
as good as we could expect with Journeys
a mix of fine concert recording and location interview recording that has a
much more limited dynamic range, while Doors
takes the audio that was recorded and does its best to repurpose it, but this
was not a multi-channel recording like their studio albums of the time, so
don’t expect the amazing 5.1 of the lossless DVD-Audio releases of their
classic albums or any 5.1 reissues since.
The sound can be a bit towards the front speakers and though this is
mixed from a well-preserved magnetic sound master, the sound is also towards
the center channel but not totally stuck in there. Doors
and Metheny also offer audiophile
quality PCM 2.0 Stereo tracks worth hearing.
Extras
are fine in for the Doors, Young and Metheny releases here, including each having several interview
featurettes. Doors has three long such pieces including Echoes From The Bowl which tells us about the rise of The Hollywood
Bowl, You Had To Be There and Reworking The Doors, Young has Journey To Slamdance and 92Y
Talks with Young and Demme (who are the interviewees at Slamdance) and Metheny has a Making Of piece with interviews and Metheny solo interview piece
where he is very well spoken.
Doors adds three analog Music
Video-like clips in a Smothers Brothers
Show Wild Child performance, Jonathan Winters Show Light My Fire performance (both on color
analog NTSC videotape) and Gloria video edited from film footage from the
analog video days, plus there is an illustrated booklet in the Blu-ray
case. Young adds the Making
Journeys featurette. Metheny also has an illustrated booklet
in the Blu-ray case, while the Blu-ray adds the original EPK (Electronic Press
Kit) and Studio Sessions: Orchestrion /
Expansion and none of the extras are in 3D.
- Nicholas Sheffo
